Axios: “Let data reign”

Posted on August 31, 2026 by michelleclarke2015
Trump: “Let data reign”
 
Illustration: Brendan Lynch/Axios. Stock: Getty Images

🤖 President Trump has a new message for Americans rebelling over the nation’s data center boom: Get over it.

Trump warned Monday: “If we kill the Golden Goose, you will only have yourselves to blame.”

🗳️ Why it matters: Nine weeks out from the midterms, the president is charging into a fight Republicans have been scrambling to escape — staking political capital on one of the most toxic issues in the country, Axios’ Zachary Basu writes.

Trump wrote on Truth Social: “The only reason that communities throughout the U.S.A. should not want Data Centers is if they want to end up being backwards and poor.”

“If they want to be successful and rich, with far lower taxes and jobs all over the place, let Data Reign,” he added.

🤝 Trump’s blunt intervention comes as the AI industry mounts a far more disciplined campaign to persuade data center skeptics rather than browbeat them.

Build American AI, an advocacy group linked to the pro-AI super PAC Leading the Future, is ready to unload a $50 million war chest to defend data centers in key states, starting in Kansas, Ohio and Wisconsin.

🔎 Zoom in: Prominent investor Gavin Baker laid out his own six-part case for data centers on X, which was quickly amplified by Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and other tech leaders.

💧 Water: Newer facilities can sharply reduce freshwater use through closed-loop cooling and recycled water, Baker argues. He says those systems should be required for new projects.

💸 Taxes: Data centers can generate enormous property-tax revenue for local governments, Baker says, potentially outweighing the sales-tax exemptions that have drawn criticism.

💪 Jobs: The buildout is driving demand for electricians, plumbers, welders, HVAC technicians and contractors, making building-trade unions some of the industry’s most important allies.

🔌 Power: Baker points to new large-load tariffs and ratepayer-protection agreements as a way to ensure data centers, rather than existing customers, pay for the new generation and grid capacity they require.

☀️ Environment: Baker argues that natural gas, renewables and batteries can meet surging demand now, with data centers ultimately moving toward solar and storage.

🌆 Towns: Data centers can turn struggling communities into beneficiaries of the AI boom. Baker points to Quincy, Washington, where data centers now account for more than half of the local property-tax base.

🥊 Reality check: Republicans in key battlegrounds have spent weeks recalibrating their positions on data centers as the issue turned politically toxic. Trump’s intervention risks blowing up that escape route.

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About michelleclarke2015

Life event that changes all: Horse riding accident in Zimbabwe in 1993, a fractured skull et al including bipolar anxiety, chronic fatigue …. co-morbidities (Nietzche 'He who has the reason why can deal with any how' details my health history from 1993 to date). 17th 2017 August operation for breast cancer (no indications just an appointment came from BreastCheck through the Post). Trinity College Dublin Business Economics and Social Studies (but no degree) 1997-2003; UCD 1997/1998 night classes) essays, projects, writings. Trinity Horizon Programme 1997/98 (Centre for Women Studies Trinity College Dublin/St. Patrick's Foundation (Professor McKeon) EU Horizon funded: research study of 15 women (I was one of this group and it became the cornerstone of my journey to now 2017) over 9 mth period diagnosed with depression and their reintegration into society, with special emphasis on work, arts, further education; Notes from time at Trinity Horizon Project 1997/98; Articles written for Irishhealth.com 2003/2004; St Patricks Foundation monthly lecture notes for a specific period in time; Selection of Poetry including poems written by people I know; Quotations 1998-2017; other writings mainly with theme of social justice under the heading Citizen Journalism Ireland. Letters written to friends about life in Zimbabwe; Family history including Michael Comyn KC, my grandfather, my grandmother's family, the O'Donnellan ffrench Blake-Forsters; Moral wrong: An acrimonious divorce but the real injustice was the Catholic Church granting an annulment – you can read it and make your own judgment, I have mine. Topics I have written about include annual Brain Awareness week, Mashonaland Irish Associataion in Zimbabwe, Suicide (a life sentence to those left behind); Nostalgia: Tara Hill, Co. Meath.
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